Sunday Reads...

​An irregular round-up of interesting reads.  Most of these made me go "hmmmmm," none of them imply concurrence:
 
Quote of the Day:
"With everything that attracts you, that you like, or find useful, remember to tell yourself what it is, beginning with the simplest things. If you like a pot, say, ‘I like this pot,’ so that if it breaks, you will not be disturbed. When you kiss your child or your wife, say, ‘I kiss a human being,’ so that if they die, you will not feel disturbed." - Epictetus

• China has apparently proved that smartphones are bad for a nation. "High app usage is detrimental to all outcomes we measure. A one s.d. increase in app usage reduces GPAs by 36.2% of a within-cohort-major s.d. and lowers wages by 2.3%. Roommates’ app usage exerts both direct effects (e.g., noise and disruptions) and indirect effects (via behavioral spillovers) on GPAs and wages, resulting in a total negative impact of over half the size of the own usage effect…Using high-frequency GPS data, we identify one underlying mechanism: high app usage crowds out time in study halls and increases late arrivals at and absences from lectures."​ ​

• Evidence suggests that teacher unions harm the quality and service to students.
• An investigation uncovers an army of lobbyists and Public Relations professionals swinging into action to convince the U.S. Senate to oppose RFK’s efforts to improve America’s food production.
• Recent U.S. elections’ outcomes are complex, as always, but the plurality driver is clear: non-transitory inflation.
  
• Are these the most important recipes of the past 100 years?
  
• Amity Shlaes addresses the “Economic Consequences of Populism.”
  
• An essay on the failed fatal conceit of a national industrial policy.
  
• Tyler Cowen schools us on the history of destructive and job-killing tariffs.
  
• More evidence that minimum wage regulations have an unequal impact in America.
  
• Charting the fatness of America by state, here.
  
• Are there too many toys? Anti-abundance narratives continue to pervade the marketplace of ideas.
  
• Unpacking the mysteries of the Azetic death-whistles linked to their culture of human sacrifices.